On the bus from the aeroplane at Trabzon's military airport to the terminal I met a very nice person called Kay Stevens with whom I visited the Sumela Monastery the following day. I stayed at the Erzurum Oteli for 15,000 TL per night.
A touristic City Map I picked up has this to say about Trabzon (click on it to enlarge it):
How historical! All those fantastic names. I remember having to study Xenophon for Greek O level. The romance of names such as Mehmet the Conqueror or Suleyman the Magnificent wasn't really matched by the look of the place.
It was all a bit higgledy-piggledy and not very attractive, really. The place I intended to visit was the Sumela Monastery.
My energetic clambering in Cappadocia had been a little training for the climb up to the Monastery which is at the foot of a cliff 1,200m up overlooking the Altindere valley. The monastery was started by two Athenian monks Barnabas and Sophronios who claimed to have found a relic of the Virgin Mary there. I wonder how on earth a relic of the Virgin Mary could have found its way to the foot of a cliff half wat up Mount Karadag? There wasn't anything there before the monks began to use the cleft in the rocks as a church. I have some difficulty with this claim. No matter, people at the time (375-95AD) believed it and over the centuries the Roman empite, the Kingdom of Trebizond and even the Ottoman empire kept up the development of the place. My picture is above and a postcard I sent home is below.
The alpine scenery was indeed magnificent and the exercise was very good. The contrast in the scenery from Cappadocia was remarkable. The humidity is high here and the area is renowned for tea plantations. My pictures of it weren't very good. I think they were blurred because of the mist. I must say, however, that when the monastery was reached I found it a bit of a disappointment. The place seemed not only to have been fallen into ruins but had been vandalised in the modern sense of the word. I wasn't impressed by the frescoes particularly. They were damaged and I am sure that I remember there being graffiti too. The way I heard it was that the place had been vandalised when the area had been under occupation by Russians or Georgians or Armenians. The information on the web suggests that the place is being restored at present so it could be much better now.
On the other hand, the views from the monastery were pretty good.
As mentioned I went up to Sumela with a woman called Kay Stevens I'd met the day before. Kay, from Brisbane, was the most Australian person I have ever met. She told me she was a cook for an airline in Australia and was traveling alone taking advantage of the huge discounts on worldwide flights available because of her work. When I wrote home I said that she seemed a bit lost and definitely at risk of being ripped off. I don't think I meant this unkindly. It just seemed like she hadn't really the faintest idea where she was going or what she should expect to find when she got there. After Turkey she was off to Egypt and Jordan.
After descending from the monastery we ate at a Pide Salonu - basically a Turkish Pizza restaurant. I haven't mentioned it before but the food in Turkey was invariably excellent.
The next day I had breakfast at Guven Pasthenesi and saw Kay Stevens off back in the direction I'd come from. I recommended the Australian Pension in Selcuk. I then went to the Post Office and posted back the ceramic plate I'd bought in Cappadocia hoping it would arrive in one piece. Despite my attempts at careful packaging it didn't but my brother Hugo did stick it together. It wasn't exactly ceramic either. It was more glazed plaster of Paris. I think it has now been thrown away.
Then I had a shave. You might wonder why this was noteworthy. The point was that I didn't shave myself. I went to a barber's shop and had the barber shave me. I have to say that this experience is well worth it.
After that I sat around in a Cay Bacesi drinking more tea and writing postcards etc. Towards sunset I went to see the Aya Sofya or Aghia Sofia or Ana Sofia as I notice it is variously called.
I should say that by this time you might be wondering whether I was a religious nut. After all I seem to have been doing in Turkey is visit places of religious interest. The fact is that I am not a very religious person at all but in Turkey the whole place is steeped in religious history. Everywhere you turn there is another fascinating religious edifice.
My purchase in Trabzon was "Guide to Eastern Turkey" by Ilhan Aksit. The biographical information about Ilhan Aksit sets out a very impressive CV in archeology between 1965 and 1982 when he retired to take up a career as an author. I should say that this book is very good and the photographs in it are very good too. The main reason for buying the book was to make up for the fact that I couldn't take photographs of everything and to make sure that I had some kind of visual reminder in the event that my slides failed to come out. Anyway the book is well written with loads of good information about the places in Trabzon I was visiting and some of the places in Eastern Turkey I planned to visit next. I'm sure that Ilhan Aksit was not responsible for the biographical blurb which after explaining his retirement to write popular books on Turkish archeology and tourism: "He has nearly 3 titles to his credit to date, including. 'The Story of Troy', 'The Civilisations of Anatolia'. 'The Blue Jpurney', 'Istanbul' and 'The Hittites'." What attracted my attention first was the use of the word "nearly" in the context of the number of books he's written and then a list of a couple more than nearly 3 titles: nearly twice as many as that but actually 5!
Ilhan Aksit says that the "Hagia Sophia of Trabzon" (as he calls it, giving it yet another name) was built during the reign of the emperor Manuel I (1238-1263). I've never heard of emperor Manuel I. His name suggests there were more than one emperor Manuel and this was news too. I am no expert on frescoes and so you will know that it is Ilhan who tells us that it is believed that the frescoes were done in the year 1260 and appear to be the earliest examples extant of the Paleologue period. That's what it says. I'm sorry but I don't know what came before or after the Paleologue period let alone what the Paleologue period might be. Look it up, if you like.
Above: a postcard showing the miracle at the marriage in Cana on the western wall of the "Narthex". Says Wikipedia: "The narthex of a church is the entrance or lobby area, located at the end of the nave, at the far end from the church's main altar. Traditionally the narthex was a part of the church building, but was not considered part of the church proper. It was either an indoor area separated from the nave by a screen or rail, or an external structure such as a porch. The purpose of the narthex was to allow those not eligible for admittance into the general congregation (particularly catechumens and penitents) to hear and partake in the service. The narthex would often include a baptismal font so that infants could be baptized there before entering the nave, and to remind other believers of their baptisms as they gathered to worship."
Above: a postcard depicting the loaves and fishes miracle on the northern side of the Narthex.
Above: Jesus discoursing with the Doctors in the Temple on the southern wall of the Narthex.
Below: two postcards of the ceiling or central vault of the Narthex depicting the four evangelisists.
Below: The interior of the church. This is from Ilhar Aksit's book.
This was a very peaceful place. I was, so far as I can remember, completely alone there.
My notes say that I had a Doner Kebab for dinner. I can confirm that this was much better than the Doner Kebabs I used to have from City Road Cardiff when I was a student there. Before I went to bed I telephoned the Australian Pension to let them know that Kay Stevens might very well arrive.
The following day I wandered around Trabzon. The port was full of Russians (as was my hotel) who had come ashore and who were feverishly trading whatever they had for US dollars. A 3 litre bottle of Stolychnaya would have cost £6 and I remember being shown some very dodgy looking face cream.
My diary says I went to Boztepe but frankly I have no memory of it. I had to look it up on the net to find out what it was. It's is a hill with views of the city below. There are places to sit and drink tea and apparently a couple of ruined monasteries. I can't remember whether I went there or not. I don't know why I would have written a note in the diary
And so the sun set on my last day in Trabzon. But the excitement wasn't over.
A fortnight earlier Trabzonspor the city's football team had notched up one of the most famous victories in its history by beating the mighty F C Barcelona 1:0 at home in the first leg of the their first round match in the UEFA Cup Winners' Cup. Embedded below is a You Tube video of that famous night. Isn't that Johan Cruijff in the dug-out?
The second leg in Spain was this very night and there were high hopes of a major upset. Television sets did not seem to be widely owned and so every Cay Evi (Tea Room) and Hotel Lounge was packed to watch the satellite broadcast. The Town Hall had even rigged up a big screen in the main Square.
Despite Trabzonspor scoring first, to near hysterical jubilation, gaining that all important away goal that meant Barcelona had to score at least 3 times, they managed to net 7 goals in reply. Although Trabzonspor did manage another goal the final score was F C Barcelona 7:2 Trabzonspor (aggregate 7:3). Gloom descended over the city. Mysteriously there seems to be no You Tube footage of this match.
The next morining it was raining. I checked out of the hotel and got on a Dolmus up the coast past the terraces of tea plantations. At Hopa the Black Sea coast road crosses into Georgia. I changed minibuses there and began the climb over the Kackar mountains to Artvin.
